Herman Cain's Accuser: The Hand Of David Axelrod?

Sharon Bialek with attorney Gloria Allred

Conservative columnist Ann Coulter pieces together a pretty good theory linking the first woman to go public with claims that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain sexually harassed her to President Barack Obama's devious Chicago political consultant, David Axelrod. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that Sharon Bialek lives in Chicago, a city where Herman Cain has never worked. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that she lives in the same building on North Lake Shore Drive where Axelrod lives. Perhaps it's just a coincidence that a former chief of staff to Mayor Richard Daley and friend of Axelrod's, Sheila O'Grady, took a job as head of the Illinois Restaurant Association around the same time Cain was running the National Restaurant Association. Coulter also reminds us of Axelrod's critical role in bringing down Obama's Democratic and Republican opponents in his U.S. Senate bid in 2004 by getting unproven sexual misconduct allegations in their sealed divorce records unsealed and aired publicly. And then there's a claim by Daley's former fire commissioner that he was hit with false sexual harassment allegations and ordered to resign or be smeared by the false allegations.

Laying all that aside, there's the credibility problem of Cain's accuser. By all accounts, people who know her describe her as a gold digger with a spotty work history who tries living well beyond her means, has twice filed for bankruptcy and has been a party to a paternity action. Despite the outrageous conduct she accused Cain of engaging in when she supposedly was interviewing for a job working for him at the National Restaurant Association in Washington (he can't recall meeting her), she never filed a formal complaint against him. Hmmm. Bialek is represented by Gloria Allred, a highly-partisan Democratic, media attention-seeking attorney who has a long history of representing women making dubious accusations against prominent Republican politicians at politically convenient times. The Sun-Times' Michael Sneed picks up on some other matters that call Bialek's credibility into question:

• A Sneed source who is familiar with several men Bialek dated claims she registered on a Jewish dating Internet site years ago. But when dates showed up, she’d tell them she wasn’t Jewish — did they mind?
• Bialek tells a Sneed source she not only broke off her engagement last February to Mark Harwood, but she sold the five-figure diamond engagement ring he had given her.
• Maybe one reason Cain claims not to recognize her: Bialek’s looks have changed since 14 years ago. “I’ve probably packed on a few pounds,” she told Jacobson. [She also started dying her hair blonde].

The other woman who has publicly accused Cain, Karen Kraushaar, has a history of making dubious sexual harassment claims in her past jobs and just happened to have been awarded a very nice job by the Obama administration as a spokesperson for the Treasury Department. The woman vouching for Kraushaar's credibility to the media, Maria Cardona, coincidentally is "a seasoned Democratic strategist, public affairs and communications professional with more than 20 years experience in the political, government, public relations, and campaign arenas." Enough said?